Narcissister

Self portrait by Narcissister

Narcissister focuses on race, gender, and sexuality through a constant renegotiation of the self, and its inherent performative nature within contemporary society against heteronormative structures of surveillance and policing. Drawing from the myth of Narcissus, self possession becomes a strategy where humor is deployed to turn a lens back on the ways contemporary society rewards a specific kind of female narcissism. Appropriating methods of self-presentation through combining her professional experience as a dancer and the methodologies of Black radical feminism, her constant performative persona amplifies the ways in which those assigned sexuality and racial deviant from “the norm” have always had to reinvent what was expected of them in order to survive.

Narcissister is a Brooklyn-based artist and performer. Drawing from the myth of Narcissus, self-possession becomes a strategy where humor is deployed to turn a lens back on the ways contemporary society rewards a specific kind of female narcissism. She received a B.A. in Afro-American Studies at Brown University and studied modern dance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Solo exhibitions include: Narcissister, Margot Samel at Kendall Koppe, Glasgow, Scotland (2024); Vogue into Infinity, Pioneer works, Brooklyn, NY (2024);  Wimmin, Artpace, San Antonio, TX (2019); Narcissister, Studies for Participatory Sculptures, Participant Inc, New York, NY (2014); New Video Work, Petrella’s Imports, New York, NY (2013); Narcissister is You, Envoy Enterprises, New York, NY (2013). Selected group exhibitions include: Summer Camp, Sargent’s Daughter, New York, NY (2023); Multiplicity: Collage in Contemporary America, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (2023); The Cult of Beauty, Wellcome Collection, London, UK (2023); Maskenfreiheit, Margot Samel, New York, NY (2023);  Spikes that bite, Margot Samel, New York, NY (2022-23); Role Play, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy (2022); pornotopia revised, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria (2022); Friends & Family, Magenta Plains, New York, NY (2021); Punch, Deitch Projects, Los Angeles, CA (2019); A Detached Hand, Magenta Plains, New York, NY (2019); Sculpture for People, Deitch Projects, Los Angeles, CA, (2019); No body to talk to, Invisible Exports, New York, NY (2019); Honey, Bodega Gallery, New York, NY (2018); Sculpture for People, Deitch Projects, New York, NY (2018); Cosí fan tutte, Archivio di Videoarte del Veneto, Verona, Italy (2016); This one is smaller than this one, Postmasters Gallery, New York, NY (2016); Harlem Postcards, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (2015); Check Your Vernacular, Rhode Island School of Design, Memorial Hall, Providence, RI (2014); Draped Down, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (2014).

Works